Levain Cookie Recipe Copycat

Levain Cookie Recipe Copycat!

I’ve made many variations on the Levain cookie recipe copycat, and the recipe that comes closest is this one. The cookie in this photo is the copycat.

And the cookie in this photo is the actual Levain cookie, which is scraggly and quite brown. Sometimes my copycats do turn out as scraggly and sometimes they don’t. It depends on how I bake them and how long the dough has been chilled.

The copy cat version is a spin-off of Lisa’s original version from Art Culinaire, but I’ve made a few modifications to get the thick, brown, scraggly appearance of the original. I use cold bread flour, very cold European style butter, plus I bake the cookies in a convection oven. You can make the cookies with all-purpose flour and regular (American style) butter as well, and you can also use a regular oven as opposed to convection. In my personal experience comparing the two cookies side by side, using the bread flour, European butter and convection oven helped make the cookies more like their namesake, but those three things aren’t critical.

Recently, I discovered a new secret ingredient (dry milk powder), so there’s yet another version in the works.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the chopped up, cold butter until it comes together. It should be creamy and still cold.

Add the sugar and continue to beat until it is mixed in. Gradually add the eggs and vanilla and continue beating with the paddle on medium until mixed, scraping sides of bowl once or twice. The coolness from the eggs should make the butter seize up again so the creamy mixture will appear lumpy.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and dry milk powder. With the mixer on medium-low (or by hand with a heavy duty rubber scraper), gradually add the flour mixture stirring just until mixed. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.

Empty the batter onto a large flat surface and make sure all the ingredients are evenly incorporated. Instead of lumping it all together, keep it kind of loose. Divide into 8 raggedy pieces. The dough should be cold before you even put it in the refrigerator, but chilling the dough will help make the cookies taller. I’ve also had good results freezing the dough and baking it from frozen.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. If you are using convection, preheat to 350 F convection.

Arrange cookies (I recommend baking 1 or 2 first to nail down your time) on a cool heavy duty cookie sheet. Bake on center rack for 18 minutes at 375 or 20 minutes at 350F convection. Let cool for about 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove and finish cooling on a rack. When cool, you can eat OR you can freeze the cookie and thaw them for a better texture.

Notes

I've been experimenting with different flours and butter.

Bread flour, almost any brand, will give you a cookie with a thick shell. I also like the results of cookies made with White Lily all-purpose. White Lily weighs a little less cup for cup, so the best way to use it is to weigh out the 13.5 oz. If you don't have a scale, stir it well and use about 3 1/3 cup instead of 3 cups. Cookies made with White Lily won't have as thick a shell and will be slightly softer.

For the butter, I've used European style (Central Market brand or Plugra) and have also experimented with regular unsalted butter. The best cookies were with the European style butter, but unsalted Land o Lakes also gave me big, fat cookies. When I used store brand (HEB) butter, the cookies spread a little bit more.

Dawn, I’m glad you like the recipe. I might play around with new versions this week. After I posted this I made some more with homemade (non-yellow) butter.

Free samples are always nice. I got mine from a friend whose husband picked some up in New York. He carried them home, then they were shipped to me. It’s amazing how fresh they tasted even after all that traveling.

Your comment that maybe Connie and Pam will write a book caught my eye because my name is Pam, and I have an older sister named Connie. We both like to bake, but no plans to write a book. Of course, our last name isn’t (and never has been) Levain! These cookies look amazing.

Anna, I saw that exact same post (and your comment) and started thinking about those cookies, too! I have to say that photo of the chocolate chocolate chip in the post is outrageous! Can’t wait to try your version–it looks decadent yet easy!

Don’t get me started! 😉 My favorite cccs! I know way back when I used to “play along” with you in the quest to clone these, but when I see your recipe has bread flour, I don’t remember that. Must go back and look through my recipes.
Love the pictures!
A favorite Levain go-to that I often make is Lisa’s from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives.
Your photos look more like Levains, mine usually do, too–I always do the “loosely scooped” thing. See, you’ve got me started. And really–I just want to go to NYC again now! 😉

I remember quite fondly the Levain cookie clone days when it seemed like every blogger was making a go of it. Your current version looks very close and brings back fond memories of my cookie quest in NYC. For me the NY Times Cookie (I believe adapted from Jacques Torres) beats out Levain as my favorite, but I’ll gladly take a Levain.

I expect to have more Levain’s when I’m in NYC in a couple of weeks. I prefer Levain’s Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip. Have you tried cloning it? I was thinking about the “freshness” thing. Maybe they use some glucose or nonfat dried milk.

Louise, I don’t think they use glucose because they are all about “fresh” and glucose just doesn’t seem like something Connie and Pam would use.

Rodzilla, I actually made Matt’s version right before I made these. They were delicious! As I made his recipe I noticed his was pretty much the same as Lisa’s (the one Katrina mentioned) which I’ve tried and which is not the same as Levain’s either.

I must make these cookies. Do you think they might use a bleached flour and that might account for the color difference. I think if you’ve got the flavor and texture I wouldn’t worry about the color. Even eggs could account for a difference in color. The eggs my brother gets in Iowa have much more colorful yolks than the eggs I buy here.

Sue, they might. Someone told me that bleached flour was less expensive and certain bakers recommend it for cakes and softer cookies. I’m pretty sure the yellow in my cookies came from the yellow European style butter. When I made the cookies again with homemade butter, the only yellow in the cookie was from the egg yolk, so they were closer in color to Levain’s. In the You Tube video made by Levain, the butter looks fairly pale.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61Zba8jh5Wg

Anyway, making butter was a lot of fun and I’m not sure why I never thought to use fresh homemade butter in cookies before. All you do is put about 2 cups of heavy cream in a stand mixer, run it on high with the whisk attachment until it separates, pour off the buttermilk, then pat dry the solids (the butter). I’m still playing around with the homemade butter making. The first batch I made using a smaller bowl and a hand-held mixer. I used only 1/2 cup (4 oz) of cream and ended up with only about 1.6 oz (weight) of solid butter and a good deal of liquid (buttermilk). If you’re interested, I recommend searching for a You Tube video or a tutorial by a chef.

I have read that the freezing process somehow changes the structure of sugar crystals. If you freeze cookies and then just thaw them prior to eating, the texture will be different. If you warm them after freezing, the sugar crystals will revert back to the pre-freezing structure as will the texture. I am not a chemist but I think I read this somehwre in all of the Cook’s Illustrated literature that is ot there.I always put cookies in the refrigerator for at least an hour prior to baking. I think I really makes both a flavor difference.

I’m glad you talked more about your home made butter. When I was a little girl my parents bought our milk directly from a farmer. My Mom would scrape the cream from the top and put it into jars then send us out to the porch to shake it until we got butter. Looking back on it I’m sure it was just a ploy to keep a bunch of bored kids busy, but I think it’s really interesting to read about making it in a mixer! And fascinating that you would go to the effort for perfecting these cookies. You’re really amazing!

I remember my second grade teacher passed around a small container of cream and each student took a turn at shaking it. By the time the last student had a go at it, it was solid. She brought in crackers so that we could sample our delicious creation.

One more thing — here’s a link to Dawn’s version. Dawn used some baking powder and hers are very thick. I wanted to leave it out for various reasons (thought I might get more browning, density) and it worked, but maybe the baking powder is necessary if you’re not using a high gluten bread flour like KA?

Louise, sorry I missed your comment. Yes, the dark chocolate chip has been cloned — or at least the dark chocolate with peanut butter chips. This isn’t the greatest photo, but here’s the post where I made it. The large size Ghirardelli bittersweet chips detract from the appearance, but that recipe made with regular peanut butter chips (or just dark chocolate chips) is really close to Levain’s. And it should be since it’s based on a recipe from the bakery.

Oh my goodnes!. I just baked two of these and they are as close to divine as a cookie can get! I used Lurpak butter and the aroma of the butter while baking is indescribeable. I made the Levain Copy Cats Version 2 listed above, with the baking soda and baking powder. Used weights for measurements. My only variation is that I didn’t have walnuts and I only had 1/2 c. of pecans so I used those and I used a 10 ounce package of 60% Bittwersweet Ghiradelli chips. I chilled the dough in twelve loose balls. Really, really, excellent cookies. Thank you Anna!

After having (and loving) Levain cookies recently I couldn’t wait to make them. This recipe is an excellent clone. I followed your technique and ingredients except for omitting walnuts and using regular unsalted butter. I found refrigerating the dough over 24 hours then freezing them solid gave me the best results. I think refrigerating the dough for awhile let the flavors meld and freezing them before baking is best. I used convection at 350 for 22 mins. I did try freezing a couple after baking but found it sort of lost that crisp exterior after defrosting. To me the closest to original texture is to bake and cool about and hour, then enjoy! This way the chocolate chips are melty and soft and exterior is sort of crumbly. Now I’m onto the chocolate peanut butter chip. Can’t wait!!! Thanks for sharing Anna.